


The Weight that Crushes

by handelgamer



Series: Restarts and Renewals - Tales of the Calamity [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Amane Fauchetemps (OC), Cecetu Cetu (OC), Eleone Fauchetemps (OC), Gen, Kaen Paniphar (OC), Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Pre-ARR, Richault Fauchetemps (OC), Sereh Paniphar (OC), Tetetu Tetu (OC)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 19:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13981335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handelgamer/pseuds/handelgamer
Summary: Never did Eleone expect she would finally explore the world outside of her home like this.





	The Weight that Crushes

Eleone sighed as she looked over at her arguing parents. They were having the same argument they were always having, whether to leave the tunnels in which they lived in or to stay in a crumbling ruined home. “It’s not safe anymore!” Her father Richault said. “Just think of what could happen if the tunnel that connects us to the outside collapses in on itself.”

“We clear and rebuild. As always,” Amane said.

“And run the risk of starvation before that happens. We only have so much food here and we are only three people. Amane, I have contacts. We can move-”

“No we can’t! This is our home. It has been in my family for generations and by the gods, it will be so.”

Eleone finally left the small cavern and took the tunnels. Those two would be at it for ages and she didn’t want to be a part of it. She made her way towards the surface, yearning to see what she could of the night sky. Her parents were so agitated about the news of Dalamund’s fall. First a simple rumor but then a definite horror as the moon got brighter and larger in the sky. At least, that’s what her father reported. I’m eighteen now. Surely I can go farther out into the surface now. She was so mad when Father actually godsdamned agreed with her Mother on keeping her underground for now. “People aren’t exactly fond of people like us, who stayed behind underground,” he said.

“And be bound by those blasted elementals!? I think not!” Amane would shout.

Eleone sighed and finally reached the edge of the cave. A few feet in front of her, she saw father’s hedgewards to warn of people coming close. Or if anyone tried to leave. She grimaced at that memory. She sat down and pulled her knees to her chest as she looked up at the night air. All was still. As if the night was tensing up for what was to come. Eleone sighed and looked up at the trees above, trying to catch a glimmer of the night sky...when to her right side, the western edge, she saw something brighten. An orange hue. Eleone crept as close as she could to the half circle of the trap, trying to make out this light that was getting brighter and heading...for the ground?

As soon as she thought that the earth shook beneath her. A tremor? No no no this is not good. Her home! Her parents! Eleone tried to dash up, to stand, to run to her mother and father! She heard crumbling from the tunnel. No! Not too far into the cavern, she now saw a wall of rocks. Oh gods no! “Father! Mother!” She desperately ran to the rocks. She needed to clear this. Needed to get to them. Desperately she cleared what rubble she could. For hours and hours she did so, her hands bloody and cut up so badly. And still and still she could see no way through. Eleone collapsed, frustrated and desperate. She sobbed there, crying as she thought of her parents alone or worse...no she mustn’t think that. They had to be alive and desperately trying to get to her too.

Twas then she heard...footsteps? No that couldn’t be. But unmistakably she heard them. She turned her head around to see who was there. A Miq’ote? She had to be, she had those ears and a long tail. “Miss? You alright?”

Eleone suddenly realized what a horrid mess she probably looked. Clothes all grungry, her hands and arms all cut up from moving rocks by hand. And of course, the crying. But- “My parents! My parents are trapped in there! Please can you help them?”

The Miqo’te said, “Let me see...” She held her staff in front of her, and concentrated. She frowned as she was searching. Oh gods, they better be safe!

“Please!? Are they okay?”

She sighed. “Well, they are safe in there for now but the elementals are ill-at-ease. And, for now, forbid me from granting aid and succor. They do not want to give aid those who do not heed their words.” Her look was an apologetic one but it did nothing to stifle the rage Eleone felt building up within her at the moment. But then…

“However, right now, you look tired and hungry,” She extended a hand out to Eleone. “My family will have some room if you want to stay with us for a bit.”

I thought, I thought she was going to refuse to help. Then why…

Noticing Eleone’s silence, the Miqo’te said. “I’m Kaen by the way,” And nudged her hand a little bit closer.

“Eleone,” she said as she clasped Kaen’s hand.

-

Eleone did not know what reception she was supposed to have gotten at Kaen’s family home. Certainly not all the help she received. After hearing her plight, Kaen’s mother, Sereh, leaped to help, supplying Eleone with mining gear and lunches and a place to stay while she worked. “Wish I could do more but, you know, elementals.”

“Well...sorta I guess. I mean, I know they are trouble but what do you get out of listening to them.”

“We get to live here,” Sereh said. “And let me tell you, it’s better living under their blessing than without it,”

“Says the woman who taught me how to bend the rules,” Kaen said, grinning at her mother. Neither of them were directly helping in Eleone’s excavation, and were instead, supervising. And answering any of Eleone’s questions she could think of about the world beyond her cave.

“So does your family have any sort of friends whatsoever?” Sereh asked.

“Um, yeah. Evidently there was this merchant from Ul’dah. He sold her alchemical potions for her to sell for even more ridiculous prices. Or something.” Eleone sighed at that. Just mentioning that brought up more memories of the many many fights her parents had. About how her father left so often but what choice did he have? It was selling his wares or else banditry, is what he always said. Still, he agreed with her on one thing, the woods would never accept them.

But still, those elementals seem to like me well enough. Probably because I don’t know anything at all. Eleone sighed. Another strike at the wall. And another. And then…

A hole! There was a hole now! It was small but she managed to break through! “Dad! Mom!” Eleone shouted, throwing aside her pickaxe to tear at the hole by hand.

“Eleone! Eleone is that you?” 

Mother! “I’m here! I’m here!” There she was! “Where’s father?!”

A grimace. “He’s...packing up. He said he can’t stay down here any longer. He’s going to head off for Ul’dah, find his business partner and work with her.” She near spat that last line out.

“You...you aren’t leaving here? But Father was right! I nearly lost you! I nearly lost both of you! We have to move! And, I don’t know too much about Ul’dah but I do that the elementals don’t wan-”

Amane’s expression darkened. “How? Where in the hell did you learn about those horrid things?”

“Oh uh, Miss Kaen and her mother Sereh helped me out,” Eleone moved out of the way of the hole so she could see the two Miqo’te behind her. “They took me in and helped me. Even got me the supplies so I could rescue you!”

It is at this moment that Kaen stepped forward. “Now let me be clear, ma’am, these walls are unsteady. If there is to be another earthquake, and I bet it will happen, you will die here.”

Amane glared up at Kaen. “Then I die as I should. Within the earth that is my home.” She then looked over at Eleone. Tears were forming up in her eyes. “You can’t stay with me? So I won’t be alone?”

“M-mother I-” Eleone’s voice broke. How could her mother choose not to live? Why would she die for this? Why...why would she ask Eleone to die with her? In that instant, Eleone felt something stir within her, something deep and sharp. Fury. Fury was the word. “How could you ask me that?! I don’t want to die, not now! There’s still so much I do not know about this world and I want to find out! I want to see it all, Gridania, Ul’dah, the whole of Eorzea! I can not stay here anymore!” Eleone picked up her pickaxe and headed to the hole. “I’m going to open up a hole here. It’ll be the only one I’ll make. You can choose to come out if you want, join us, if you wish but...if you stay here then...” Eleone began breaking into tears but she had to finish. She had to say this, in case...in case she never saw her mother again. “...I love you, Mother. I really do. I hope you to see you very soon but...” She shook her head, and took up her pickaxe and began working on expanding the hole.

“...if I don’t see you...I- I hope you find peace.”

-

In a few hours did Eleone clear the tunnel to somewhat satisfaction. In a few hours more, did Richault and Eleone bring up what they could. Some personal trinkets, a large stash of gil and Richault’s alchemical supplies. Amane simply watched, not saying anything more to either of them. Kaen and Sereh watched too, with what reason, Eleone could only guess. However, when they had gathered the last bits, Sereh stepped forward to Amane glaring at her, and said, “This was your choice. To forsake kin for your ideals.” 

Finally everything was gathered. Richault walked briskly ahead but Eleone gave one glance back. She saw her mother, illuminated by a faint candlelight. She held her hand out towards Eleone, wordlessly asking one last time for comfort. And suddenly the fury overtook Eleone again. She turned and walked up the tunnel one last time, thus felt herself being rend into two. The part that wished for her mother to find peace, as she said, and the part that cursed her to be swallowed up by darkness.

-

It took months for things to relatively settle down in Gridania. Many more earthquakes racked the land, breaking it apart, to the point in which a swamp was formed just to the south of Quarrymill. Richault even had to go through a purification ritual, just so he could be accepted to stay for a little bit longer. Still the two tried to find succor, Eleone once again taking to the earth with pickaxe in hand, rescuing as many as she could from the ruins of broken homes, while Richault worked on potions to heal the wounded, alongside the conjurers. Not that many accepted them but still.

A letter one day arrived from Ul’dah for Richault. A woman named Tetetu Tetu had called for Richault, wanting a response. He told her all, about his lost home and wife and his design to come and expand on a full partnership, as soon as transportation was available. 

Kaen was also given a letter from her daughter, Cecetu, which she shared with Eleone. “I’m surprised that she’s the daughter of your husband’s friend. Well, I kinda knew she was the daughter of a goldsmith but...you know. Small world I guess,” Kaen said. Cecetu’s letter gave Eleone a glimpse into Kaen’s life. Evidently, she ran with some powerful adventurers as a much-wanted healer for awhile. She even helped them attempt to stop Dalamud’s descent. But the letter now said that Cecetu struggled to even remember who those adventurers were now. A frustrated look came over Kaen’s face when she read those lines. “Oh gods,” she said, rubbing her face with her hands. “She’s right. Godsdamn it, I can’t remember them.”

“You- you going to be okay?”

“Yeah. I guess I’ll just deal with it,” Kaen muttered. “Guess I’m like you in that regard huh?”

Eleone lowered her face. She just felt this lingering sense of shame for her last thoughts towards her mother. She had to be dead by now, the land was so broken and torn that there was no way that cave survived for much longer. It was like there was now a weight stuck to her heart, like it was burded with something. Kaen was probably feeling something a bit different than that but still…

“I...need to talk to father about it. Soon.”

Kaen nodded. She reached out her hand and gently squeezed Eleone’s. It was hard for Eleone to smile these days but it seemed like Kaen knew what to do.

-

The two were on a private chocobo carriage loaded with their belongings now. Richault had told the driver to head for Camp Drybone, evidently there was some new settlements popping up around there. And it wasn’t too terribly far from the Shroud. Tetetu and Cecetu would met them up there and help them find a home.

“So what are you thinking?” Richault asked of Eleone.

Better now than never. Won’t likely get another chance like this in awhile to talk about Amane. “I’m thinking about her. Mother. And I, I don’t get it. Why did she stay behind? Why would she die?”

Richault sighed. He leaned his head back and looked up at the yellow cover. “She...she did so much to try to maintain a dying lifestyle. She was one of the last bastions of old Gelmorra. One of the ones who didn’t abandon the tunnels. For awhile, I admired her for that,” He smiled, as if remembering good times. “She was fierce and I was a fool wanting to learn of a lost past. Shame that she would accept nothing but marriage to share in it. But then again, I was a fool in love too.” He then looked at her with a serious look. “I will be honest, for awhile I had to turn to banditry to live. It’s why the elementals were none too keen with me. It was then that I met Tetetu, a merchant I was supposed to rob. Like your mother, she was fierce, but she put me on the straight and narrow. Offered a deal, so to speak. My alchemy? I learned quite a bit off of old Gelmorran ways. Thank your mother for that. Tetetu just also informed me of modern techniques. But of course, your mother would never approve of me modernizing old ways. Everything just had to be right.”

This was nothing that Eleone did not know about her mother already. Oft had she taught Eleone how to survive in the darkness and the cold. But heavily discouraged her father from even trying to tell of stories of beyond the cave.

“I guess there is one last thing then. This weight I feel...of mother dying...will it ever fade.”

“Sadly, it will be a burden to carry forever hun. This isn’t the same as killing a person but I’ll admit, it damn near feels the same. But know this. You gave her a choice, and it was hers to make. That makes it different. She had plenty of time to leave. It was her will to stay in there.”

“I know...” Eleone nodded. It was the only thing keeping her from breaking apart at this point. Her father got up from his side of the carriage, sat down right beside her, and pulled her into an embrace. And finally, Eleone let forth the tears she was holding onto.

-

Five years passed. Of all the places Richault would set up shop, of course it would be near a lichyard. Alchemics for embalming would always be in need there. In five years, they made a small home inside a cliff. In five years, Eleone had to actually take lives, as she helped the town defend itself from bandits. In five years, she wrote letters to Kaen, sharing in her progress in mending the Twelveswood. In five years, she befriended Cecetu, who’s wit and wonder made an excellent friend. In five years, she faced her 23rd summer.

And in that year, she, with sword and old pickaxe in tow, hopped on a chocobo carriage for Ul’dah.

**Author's Note:**

> This went places that I wasn't expecting it to go. For a long while, I experienced the worst writers block when crafting this piece, being only able to write a few sentences at a time. Then I got to Eleone reuniting with her mother and went, "Okay, how would she get her mother to leave," and then stumbled on the idea "She wouldn't." It spiraled out from there.
> 
> Also, you can tell that Eleone is going to be the resident Dark Knight of my characters now can you?


End file.
